Crypto

New Type of Bitcoin Ransomware Claims to Infect Victims With the Coronavirus

Not too many people will be surprised to learn numerous scams involving the coronavirus have come to life. One of these scams focusing on Bitcoin, and claims to “infect entire families”.

There is always someone interested in using a global pandemic to their advantage.

Bitcoin Ransomware and the Coronavirus

In this particular case, the criminal – or criminals – aim to obtain Bitcoin.

A new form of ransomware has been discovered by the ExecuteMalware team a few days ago.

It is not uncommon for ransomware strains to demand a Bitcoin payment at any given moment.

This particular malware’s creator goes one step beyond.

He or she claims that, if a payment is not made, they will infect their entire family with the novel coronavirus. 

Related Post

That is a very odd and rather insensitive claim to make.

Thankfully, it is also a  threat that no one would be able to uphold under any circumstance.

Leveraging the novel coronavirus to obtain roughly $4,000 in Bitcoin seems a bit odd.

No one is willing to pay such a high ransom demand either, regardless of any additional threats made in the process.

Rest assured this will not be the final type of malware to leverage the coronavirus crisis either.

Criminals often thrive when global panic ensues, as they hope to increase their chances of success. 

JP Buntinx

JP Buntinx is a FinTech and Bitcoin enthusiast living in Belgium. His passion for finance and technology made him one of the world's leading freelance Bitcoin writers, and he aims to achieve the same level of respect in the FinTech sector.

Share
Published by
JP Buntinx

Recent Posts

Starknet Introduces STRK20 To Bring Built-In Privacy To ERC-20 Tokens

The team behind Starknet has introduced a new token standard aimed at solving one of…

2 days ago

Meta Acquires Moltbook, A Social Network Built For AI Agents To Interact And Coordinate

In a move that highlights the growing race to build infrastructure for autonomous artificial intelligence,…

2 days ago

Polymarket Partners With Palantir To Develop AI Platform For Sports Betting Integrity

Prediction market platform Polymarket has entered a new partnership with Palantir Technologies and artificial intelligence…

2 days ago

Ethereum Foundation Begins Staking Treasury ETH Using Bitwise Infrastructure

The Ethereum Foundation has begun staking part of its treasury, marking a significant step in…

3 days ago

Cyberconnect And SurfAI Founder Reportedly Under Investigation In China

Fresh reports circulating in the crypto space suggest that Wei Jiequan, better known as Wilson…

3 days ago

Virtuals And dAI Launch ERC-8183 To Enable Trustless Agentic Commerce On Ethereum

The infrastructure powering autonomous AI agents on Ethereum is slowly coming together. Payments, trust layers,…

3 days ago